Anyone recommned some nice affordable parts of the UK? Should we move?!

[cheekymonk]

Hi there. Just wondered as we are a bit stuck! We are a family of 4, dh, ds aged 6 and dd aged 9 months and I. We live in a 2 up 2 down terraced house in Portsmouth that is valued at 126k. We have an IVA and so assumed we were unable to move but on talking to Northern Rock today, we may be able to transfer our mortgage. Snag is we'd need to find a bigger house (the point of wanting to move) for less- 100k most! is there anywhere nice you can buy a house for that amount in this country. DS goes to an excellent school and we have good docs etc so we'd be bad to give this up for a bigger house in the middle of Beirut but there is just no space. We have no money so can't extend. The 100k prices us out of Portsmouth and most of Hampshire. My folks are in Herefordshire, Dhs are in Scotlad. Would be nice to be a bit nearer to both. DS likes portsmouth but craves bigger house and garden and the kids sharing a room is proving stressful as the one often wakes the other. Have thought about selling up to rent a bigger place too. Any suggestions or ideas??

East Yorkshire is lovely and still within easy reach of motorways for family visits

7to25 you don't sound too enamoured with Chorley? I take it its not THAT nice then?? I wondered if it was down to jobs. I just want to avoid deprived areas really, IYSWIM.

true hayleysd

South Wales is lovely, and there are some beautiful parts of it with very reasonable housing costs. Jobs are an issue to a certain extent but certainly travelling to the cities of Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea offers loads of the usual options, it's more in the small towns and villages that it is a problem as far as I'm aware.

I am just rereading this and I didn't say what jobs dh and I do. I am civil service-jobcentre and dh is engineer.

We rented in Chorley years ago and it was never a problem settling in - everyone was very friendly etc - what I'd call "old school northern" - neighbourly, polite etc. I wouldn't say it was a "nice" area, again - old school northern - a former mill town (I think), nothing much new, your standard northern shopping precinct, charity shops, cheaper end supermarkets, but it might have been modernised since we were there. Commuterable into Manchester / Preston. Don't know about schools as we didn't have children at the time.

We have friends who live in Leyland (just north of Chorley) and they say property seems to have reduced a little bit because they've built thousands of houses at Buckshaw Village - just outside of Chorley - a new development with good facilities etc. Lots of the older housing stock is therefore not as in demand anymore.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'd agree with posters who suggest Lancashire :)

We are currently in East London and can't wait to go back up North. We are hoping to move to one of the villages in Rossendale ( www.eleylong.co.uk/rossendale.htm ) where you can definitely get a 3 bed for under 100K - in the nicest villages you'd have to take a one that needs work to get it at 100K but definitely possible.

www.eleylong.co.uk/rossendale.htm Ooops, didn't link properly.

I'd be thinking more of trying to find other jobs, then seeing where you could live that's close enough.

You might look for somewhere close to a motorway, and not on an island.

south cumbria
Nice area I lived near here for a while. Good schools etc & possible jobs with shipyard